This guide is designed to help Diamond Open Access (OA) journals – journals that charge no fees to either readers or authors -– to establish and manage editorial workflows. It can be used by journals operating through a dedicated online journal management system, such as Open Journal Systems (OJS), as well as by journals that manage editorial processes manually via email.

Along with workflow descriptions, the guide includes screenshots from OJS 3.5 to illustrate key procedures, an annex explaining essential editorial roles and responsibilities and a collection of OJS email templates that can be adapted for different publishing contexts.

The guide was developed in response to needs identified by members of the No-Fee Open Access Publishing in Africa Community of Practice as part of the 'Collaboration for Sustainable Open Access Publishing in Africa' project, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Cite this guide as:
Kuchma, I., Smith, I., & Ševkušić, M. (2026). Editorial Workflows in Diamond Open Access Journals: A Guide. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19569991